Hope
by movetotherhythm
Summary: Isaac Lahey struggles with his past. He struggles to remember his mother and brother, and he struggles to dispel the memory of his father. He's tried to move on for years, but he can't. He's 23 now, and one day a little girl walks into his life and Isaac decides he must save this girl. By any means necessary. Also featuring Kira, Malia, Stiles, Danny, Lydia, Sheriff & Melissa.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

**Before you begin, I think it's necessary to have a little note here just introducing the themes as there will be some upsetting content.**

**There will be no graphic depictions of child abuse or sexual abuse at any point in this fic. However, the general themes are upsetting and there will be mentions of those themes that may be fairly blunt and to the point. Because of this, I would advise you to avoid this fic if either of these themes may be a trigger to you. However, if you choose to read this, please note that everything in this fic is entirely fictitious and (thankfully) bears no intentional resemblance to the lives of anybody I know.**

**If you read this, I hope you're here for the long run. A massive shoutout to my beta, hellokhaleesi. Thank you for all of your assistance with this chapter and all the help I'll need in the coming chapters.**

**Depending on reception of this fic, there may be a sequel. I've planned it and I know what will happen, I'll ask whether people want to read it later on when plot becomes clearer.**

**All that's left to say is that I'd love to hear feedback and general comments/kudos are loved and appreciated. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy!**

Isaac had been with Scott for almost three years when they had their first big argument. Isaac was shaking with anger, and Scott didn't even understand why. Isaac knew that he was overreacting, but also that he was reasonable in his fury. Scott had disappeared for three days. When he returned, he told Isaac that he had gone on a trip with Kira; his _beautiful, funny ex-girlfriend _Kira_. _Admittedly, Isaac and Kira were friends and he knew that she would never hurt him like that even if Scott would, but he couldn't help but worry.

When Isaac had clearly questioned Scott's fidelity, Scott raged too. Isaac didn't genuinely believe that Scott would cheat on him - he knew of Scott's incredible sense of loyalty far too well to think such a thing - but the fact that he knew nothing about his boyfriend's little trip was enough to spark his engrained paranoia.

It was lucky that Melissa finished work at the time she did, and entered the house at the time she did, and stood between the two young men at the time she did, or she probably would have ended up on fucking Jerry Springer under the caption "I watched my son and his fiancé kill each other with a cheese grater".

Well, probably not. Isaac and Scott did love each other. But, Isaac was working full time now, and Scott was into his last year of veterinarian training, and they were both stressed. So an argument that could have been sorted by reassurances and disbelieving head shakes ballooned into something huge, and Isaac stormed out of the house.

The kids' park on JFK Avenue covered an area of about a square mile, with a gigantic climbing frame that dominated the skyline. It stood as tall as most of the trees that lined the back boundary of the park. There was a red stain on the tarmac a little way away from the base of the frame that anybody under the age of fourteen in Beacon Hills believed was a blood stain from a kid who fell off and died. Isaac, having been nearly ten when the park was first improved, knew that a builder had spilled his drink in with the tarmac mix and it had set that colour.

Isaac sat on the bench he usually chose; under the shade of the tree, close enough to see the children playing on the climbing frame but not so close that he couldn't see the road a few hundred metres behind it.

He knew that Scott would look here if he wanted to look at all. They knew each other as well as two people could.

_Isaac and Scott had met at school. They both played lacrosse, Scott was co-captain and Isaac had just managed to achieve first-string, so there was a fairly noticeable difference in their abilities. But Scott saw Isaac sitting alone outside the school's front entrance one day and, being the incredible person that he is, initiated a little passing game between them and gave him a few bits of advice on how to play better. _

_After that, they had become good friends. Isaac would spend half of his time with Erica and Boyd, and when he wasn't with them, he was with Scott. When Erica moved to Vancouver with her mom after her parents split, Boyd went with her. And Isaac became entirely involved with Scott's 'pack'._

_Lydia was the person he spent most time with to begin with. He was scruffy, badly dressed and had zero confidence. She was the top of the social pyramid, had a keen fashion sense, and most importantly, she loved shopping. Isaac became almost a project for her, and within two weeks, they'd gone through half of the money that he had saved from his graveyard job. Lydia had even donated about $300 to the cause when Isaac used up the $200 that he had on him one day. _

_Isaac felt bad about taking her money but she insisted. Later on that day, as Lydia drove him home, she told him that after Jackson had moved to London, she needed distractions on a daily basis. She then told him that _he _was a distraction that she loved spending time with and she was glad that Scott had introduced them. Just before Isaac left the car, Lydia stopped him._

_"__You can talk to me about anything, anytime," she said, taking his cell phone from his hand, and entering her number. She kissed him on the cheek and reminded him of the clothing schedule she had picked out for him that covered a school week. He smiled and waved until she left._

_In his entire life, Isaac had only ever had about three friends. There was Matt, who had stopped talking to him one day after coming to his house and Isaac had never known why. There were Erica and Boyd, who moved to Vancouver. _

_But now he had Scott, and he had Lydia. And he couldn't help but smile. _

Isaac smiled like he had in the memory, his fingers playing absently with the fabric of the long sleeved top - another of Lydia's star choices, he realised not bothering to try and suppress his grin. It was good to think of the time when his life had changed for the better. His anger had already begun to dwindle.

He took out his cell phone and pulled up Scott's number, but he decided that he didn't want to look too desperate, and he wanted to see if Scott would call first. So, he put his phone back and looked up at the climbing frame.

It was therapeutic to him, watching the children play. He realized that this would sound completely perverted to most people, but Isaac knew he had good reason. He liked watching the children playing because he liked to remember that most kids are happy, that most kids don't have to go through what he did. He liked to watch smiling faces, pushing and pulling each other, laughing all the time, because it was a part of childhood that he never really got to have.

Watching the children made him remember the time when his mother was alive, when they would bake brownies and go to the cinema and get ice cream at the park from the kiosk. When Camden was just a teenager and resented anything to do with public displays of affection with anyone but would play soccer with Isaac in the park and let him fall asleep curled into his side when they lay down under the sun. When Isaac's father hadn't yet became a violent, abusive alcoholic.

But it was more than that. Isaac yearned for normality, and the kids symbolized that for him. They were the three bedroom house with a white picket fence, Sunday dinners while listening to the radio. As well as his past, Isaac thought of his future when he was at the park; the future that he could see himself having with Scott.

And so, when Isaac and Scott argued, Isaac felt he needed something that cheered him up, and the playground was the first place that came to mind. That's how he ended up sitting on the bench when a pair of known bullies made a little girl their target.

Normally, if Isaac had seen two ten year old boys picking on a young girl, he would have approached calmly told them to stop, and tell the boys' parents so that they could deal with it. However, since Isaac was still relatively angry, 'calmly' would not be the appropriate word to describe how he dealt with the situation.

"Listen here you little cunts," Isaac said on the approach, not raising his voice but clearly delivering the message that the two boys had better stop or they would end up a lot worse off than this little girl. "I'm gonna count to three, and if you're not running away by the time I finish, I will personally make sure you won't be running anywhere, anytime soon."

The taller of the two boys looked like he was going to square up to Isaac, until the smaller one grabbed his arm and they both ran off. Isaac turned to the little girl.

"Hiya sweetie, my name's Isaac," he said, willing his tone to hide how angry he felt. "Are you hurt?"

The girl shook her head. She was sitting on the ground having been pushed over but Isaac could see her knees and elbows were free of scratches.

"Do you know who those boys are?" Isaac asked. "If you do, tell me and I'll tell their parents so they don't bother you again."

The girl shook her head again. It didn't matter that much because Isaac knew that one of them lived on the same street as he and Scott, so he could drop by the house on his way home.

"Is your mummy or daddy here?" Isaac asked, wondering if the girl was going to communicate solely by twitches.

The girl nodded, seemingly confirming his wonderings, but then she spoke.

"I don't have a mummy but my daddy is at the shop."

Isaac frowned. Although the shop was only a minute's walk away from the park, her father definitely didn't qualify as being 'here'. He couldn't help but think that the girl's dad was irresponsible to the point of neglectful leaving his young daughter alone in the park, even for a second.

"Do you have anybody here that you know?" Isaac asked. "Like, a babysitter or a brother or sister?"

"No," she said. "I don't have a babysitter or a brother or a sister. It's just me and daddy, but he's at the shop."

Isaac frowned again. How could someone leave their child unattended? Even only to nip to the shop?

"Do you want to stay here with me until your daddy gets back and then we can tell him what happened?" he asked.

"Well, daddy says I shouldn't talk to strangers when nobody's around and you're a stranger," she said, awkwardly staring at her feet, twisting her hands.

_Well, at least he's taught her the fucking basics_, Isaac thought.

"Okay, that's fair enough," he said. "How about you go and play on the climbing frame again, and then come and tell me when you see your daddy and we'll go and tell him what's happened. Deal?"

The girl nodded and ran off, her curly golden hair bouncing on her shoulders.

Isaac couldn't shake the intense dislike for the girl's father that was beginning to manifest itself in him. This wasn't healthy for him, Isaac knew; fathers who don't seem to care enough about their kids was a topic far too close to home for him.

As the little girl resumed her playing, Isaac resumed his reminiscing.

_Initially, Isaac didn't think that he and Stiles would ever get on. Stiles was a hyperactive, over the top, centre of attention sort of guy, whereas he was somewhat sullen, calm and liked to blend into the background. _

_They'd spoken before; how could they not? They were both on the lacrosse team and were both good friends with Scott and Lydia. But, they'd never really clicked. _

_But one day, Isaac had been reading the local paper and had seen a small congratulations message to Joseph Lahey and Mary Faulkner on their marriage. By this time, Isaac had left his father's house and had been living with Scott for almost a year. _

_After lacrosse practise, he'd stayed in the changing rooms and cried, and it was Stiles who'd found him._

_"__What's wrong?" Stiles had asked. _

_"__My dad got remarried," was Isaac's reply. _

_Stiles knew about Isaac's history of abuse, and he looked a little confused._

_"__Isn't that a good thing?" he asked. "Like, he's moving on so he's not focusing on you anymore. Doesn't this mean you're free of him?"_

_Isaac nodded. It was his exact thoughts that Stiles had relayed but that wasn't what was bothering him._

_"__It's my mom," he told Stiles. "my brother's dead, her parents are dead, she had no brothers or sisters or any close family. I just feel like now that dad has remarried, I'm the only person who remembers her, or even cares about her._

_Stiles had looked very awkward at the topic of conversation but he sat down next to Isaac and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Isaac didn't even flinch away from the contact._

_"__I see what you mean," Stiles said, his voice uncharacteristically slow and steady. "It's hard remembering someone who's gone when there's nobody to share the memories with. Neither of my parents have siblings so when my mom died, it was just me and dad who seemed to care." _

_Isaac raised his tearstained eyes to meet Stiles' surprisingly also wet ones. Stiles smiled a little._

_"__You know, when my mom died, dad and me planted a flower each for her in the garden. When my grandpa died, we did it again for him. When Scott's uncle died, he and Melissa both came over and planted a flower. We've got enough to fill a florist now, but I'm sure there's room for one more, if you think it might help."_

_Isaac's heart swelled because Stiles was showing him kindness and – more importantly – understanding. _

_So they had walked down to the garden store on the town's main street and bought two forget-me-not seeds. Stiles didn't question the extra one; he knew all about Camden._

_Isaac planted them next to Stiles's flower for Claudia. Surprisingly, he felt a lot better. _

_"__The idea is that if different people have different flowers, everybody learns who the flowers represent," Stiles said. "then, even if we had to add a flower for somebody who planted one before, nobody would be forgotten because we can all remember together."_

_"__Thank you." Isaac said. It's all he could say. It's all that he needed to say. Stiles put an arm around him and they walked inside to where the Sheriff looked on smiling sadly. _

_Isaac had eaten dinner with them that night. It felt good to know that other people would help him remember his mother and brother. It also felt good to know he had another friend._

"Isaac!"

The little girl's shout broke him free of his reverie. He looked up to see her standing in front of him, smiling.

"My daddy's back. Do you still want to speak to him?"

Isaac nodded and stood up. He couldn't see anybody new, but judging by the route the girl was taking, her father was on the opposite side of the climbing frame and therefore out of view.

He didn't really know what he would say. He wanted to tell the man that his daughter had been faced with bullies and had been brave and stood up to them, but he also wanted to tell the guy to get his fucking act together so a random stranger wouldn't have to step in on his behalf.

When Isaac saw the man that the girl was pointing to, he froze. The man did likewise.

Because standing there with a cigarette between his lips, looking straight back at him was Joseph Lahey.

And suddenly, Isaac didn't want to talk to the girl's father. Because the girl's father was his father. And he did not want to talk to his father. He wanted to run. But he couldn't. His feet felt like they were glued to the ground, as his father's had regained their ability to move. The man that Isaac most hated in the world moved towards him.

"What's your name?" Isaac said to the girl, looking down at her and hoping beyond hope that his eyes didn't betray the intense wave of fear and nausea that had flooded his body at the sight of Joseph. Luckily, the girl seemed none the wiser.

"Hope."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I think it's necessary here to reiterate that there are mentions of child rape and physical non-sexual child abuse. There are no graphic depictions of these evens in this fic, but there are enough mentions to warrant a trigger warning. If these two themes could be harmful to you, please do not risk it. **

**Thank you to my wonderful beta Jess or, hellokhaleesi**

**Follows, favourites and feedback are always loved and appreciated. Please enjoy!**

_Malia was an odd one. She was fierce, quick to anger, and loved to fight. But, she was stubbornly loyal and Isaac admired her. However, despite being friends with Lydia and Scott's at-the-time girlfriend, Kira, she never crossed Isaac's path until after graduation._

_It was the night that Isaac, Scott, Stiles and Lydia had gone to a nightclub. None of them were 21, but this place was notoriously lax on ID regulation and the four of them were admitted without any trouble. They met Malia and Kira in there. Isaac had drunk alcohol before but he'd never actively done it with the intention of ending up intoxicated. Naturally, the night was a blur in his memory. _

_There was one point that stuck in his memory though – Malia kicked ass. Isaac's confidence had sky rocketed after a few vodkas and long-story-short, he came onto a straight guy with a deep set prejudice against gays. The guy threw a punch along with a "you fucking fag" and followed it with "you cunts should be fucking hanged". And then Malia was on him. _

_She broke his jawbone in one place and his cheekbone in two, and that's not even taking into consideration the three teeth he lost. All that and he didn't press charges. There was a rumour that spread around town that Malia had threatened to kill him to scare him into silence, but Isaac knew better; her ferocious glare was more than sufficient. _

_She became quite protective of him after that, and it was Malia that stood with Isaac on his 20__th__ birthday when he went back to his father's house for the first time since leaving. They'd departed with the money that Isaac's mother had left him, and even Joseph Lahey was left intimidated by Malia Tate._

"Hello Isaac," Joseph said, almost pleasantly. "What brings you here today?"

Isaac felt like someone was punching the inside of his throat. He could barely steady his breathing, let alone talk. Hope had started to bounce on the balls of her feet; clearly, she was excited by the fact that her father and Isaac knew each other. This was a sentiment not shared by her half-brother.

"Aren't you going to talk?" Joseph asked politely. He almost sounded concerned, as if Isaac's silence was something deeply worrying. "It's been a long time since we last spoke. How old are you now? 25?"

"23," Isaac said blankly. He thought that if he said any more then vomit would accompany his words out of his mouth.

"You're looking well," Joseph said. And he reached out and patted Isaac on the arm. Isaac recoiled and averted his eyes..

"Don't touch me," he hissed.

Hope grabbed her father's hand excitedly.

"Daddy, how do you know Isaac, daddy?" she asked.

"Do you remember when I told you that daddy had another lady friend before mummy?" Joseph asked her in a sickeningly loving voice that Isaac could not for a second believe was sincere. "Well, that lady was Isaac's mummy. So Isaac is your brother."

Isaac's throat tightened and he felt like he was suffocating. He grabbed at his collar and pulled it, hoping the cool air on his body would calm him down (took me ages to read the last sentence, it didn't work in my head).

"Brother, brother, brother!" Hope shouted and left her – their – father's side and wrapped her arms around Isaac's legs. He patted her head awkwardly and another wave of nausea swept over him. He couldn't help but notice a bruise on her arm that was clearly in the shape of a hand print.

"Are you-?" Isaac almost began to ask his father but he stopped himself. He couldn't bring himself to acknowledge his past with his father in front of the man in question, and there was certainly no way in hell that he could outright ask if he was abusing his daughter. But Joseph seemed to have learned to read minds as well as act the loving father.

And that's when the last tiny grain of hope left Isaac.

Joseph looked at him and smiled – not a smile that radiated warmth and affection, but a smile that he had often worn as he locked Isaac in the basement freezer, or thrown a plate or ornament his way, or one of the times when he had stumbled into Isaac's room at night and unzipped his trousers and –

Isaac banished the thought. He couldn't think of any of that now. Abuse was his past but he knew all too well that it could be his sister's present and future.

"Can Isaac come back for dinner tonight please daddy? Pleasepleaseplease?"

Joseph broke the eye contact with his son, ignoring the chill that visibly affected Isaac, and looked down at Hope.

"Not tonight, honey, you know I don't do the shopping until the weekend," he said. He then turned to Isaac. "however, you'd be more than welcome to join us for dinner on Sunday, Isaac."

Isaac's chest tightened in the same way his throat had. For one absurd moment, he thought he was having a heart attack. Before he replied, his father spoke again.

"I suppose it could be a little awkward, just the three of us," he said, in what _must_ have been mock sincerity. Isaac couldn't tell whether his father was taking the piss. "You'd be welcome to bring a friend. How about that lovely young man that you live with? Scott, is his name?"

"Scott?" Hope asked, looking up at her newfound brother. "Is Scott my brother too?"

Despite the fear in his heart, and the sadness that accompanied it, Isaac smiled. His sister was adorable. She didn't know that anything was amiss in the slightest and Isaac could not bear to be the person that broke her blissful ignorance.

He nodded.

"He will be one day," Isaac said. "I'm going to marry him."

"You're going to marry a boy?" Hope asked. She sounded delighted and confused all at once. "But who will wear the dress?"

Isaac laughed until his father's chuckle joined his, and the laughter died in his throat.

"Neither of us," he said. "We'll both wear suits."

Hope looked disappointed. Apparently she really liked dresses. Isaac couldn't help but think about how lovely this little girl was. She was clearly going to be pretty, and she was quick to laugh and totally adorable. She was easy to love. He wanted to believe that she could have changed his father, that the abuse heaped on Isaac was just stress-induced and exacerbated by alcohol dependency and PTSD. The guy had lost his wife and son in the space of a few years after all.

But Isaac knew that wasn't the case. He could have fooled himself, could have believed that Hope was completely safe with his born again father, perhaps even that their own relationship could be rebuilt. But that _smile_ told him otherwise. He knew that smile; it had haunted him every night for years.

"So what do you say Isaac?" Joseph asked, motioning for Hope to come back to him. Obediently, she did so after squeezing Isaac's leg – and he realized that she had been hugging him for almost two full minutes. "Dinner on Saturday? You, Scott, Hope and I?"

Isaac moved to refuse but his sister looked at him so expectantly – so happily. He couldn't refuse. He gathered all of the courage that he had in his entire being and looked his father in the eye.

"I'll speak to Scott," he said. "It shouldn't be a problem."

It was the first full sentence that he'd said to his father without a bowed head in over ten years.

Joseph cracked his hands together. "We live at 144 McKinley Avenue. But we must be going now, Hope."

"See you Sunday!" Hope shouted, waving her hand frantically at Isaac who only stood about four feet away from her.

"Yeah." Isaac forced a smile. "See you on Sunday."

He waited for Hope to stop looking back and waving at him before he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

He held the number 2 on his keypad in until "Calling… … Scott" appeared on the screen and he lifted it to his ear to listen to the rings.

_Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, _Isaac thought.

"I don't mean to be rude," Scott said, after Isaac had finished talking. "But this is a bad plan. And I know bad plans."

"I have to agree with him," Stiles piped up. "And I know bad plans. I make bad plans."

Stiles had gone round to cheer Scott up after the big argument. The two of them were watching a movie when Scott's phone went off. After a short discussion which mainly involved Isaac telling Scott to "shut up and listen" a lot with the occasional "I'll say sorry later", they were on their way to meet him.

About twenty minutes later, the three of them ended up sitting around a semi-circular table in the café that Malia worked in, talking about a possible dinner date with Isaac's father.

"Isaac," Scott said, one hand holding his coffee and the other holding his fiancé's free hand. "I don't think I could do that. He – well, you know – he – what he did was – I just think maybe – well – he's a cunt and I'll kill him."

Isaac sighed. He knew exactly why Scott was cautious (or perhaps homicidally furious) – why he himself was also cautious – but he couldn't quite put into words why he felt like he needed to do this.

"I have a sister, Scott," he said eventually. "My little sister, she's like three or four, and I can't let her go through what I went through. You know what she said to me?"

Scott looked sad but he made no attempt to interrupt.

"She said," Isaac continued, "'I don't have a mummy'. That's what set my dad off with me. If he was already fucking abusive going into this marriage then Hope's mom might have been the only thing stopping him from hurting her. Now she's gone."

Scott looked pained, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. After a moment of hesitation, he picked his mug up and downed the last of his coffee.

"Hey Stiles," he said, "take my card and get us both another drink." He turned to Isaac. "You want anything, I?" Isaac shook his head and Scott handed his card over to Stiles, who seemed more than happy to stand up – ADHD coupled with caffeine can make anyone a little restless.

As soon as Stiles was out of earshot, Scott turned back to give Isaac his full attention. He had an odd look on his face; something between pity and fury.

"Do you think he's, you know," Scott said anxiously. "Doing what he did to you? Not the hitting, the other thing."

"You mean raping her?" Isaac replied bluntly, making Scott flinch. When his fiancé nodded hesitantly, he continued. "I don't know. I mean it's a possibility, obviously. I'd like to think he would never do anything like that to a kid – or anyone really – but we both know that isn't true."

Scott looked sad, more so than Isaac had seen him in a long time. All of Isaac's close friends knew of the abuse that he'd faced as a child. Isaac wasn't ashamed of what happened because he knew that it wasn't his fault. But the sexual side of the abuse that he'd faced was a different story. When he thought about it, it made him feel weak and dirty. He knew that he hadn't deserved what his father had done and that it was nobody's fault but Joseph's, but that didn't mean he felt comfortable talking about it. Only Scott knew the extent of the abuse. Melissa knew too; she had been the nurse that had taken care of Isaac when he came into hospital one time. She was the only adult he'd trusted.

They sat in silence. Isaac was thinking about his father; the love that had turned into hatred and the years of abuse and torment and neglect. He assumed Scott was thinking the situation through in his head.

Isaac had explained everything to Scott, minus one detail. But that was for a later conversation. There was no point talking about that when there was still a possibility that Hope was perfectly safe with Joseph, however slim the possibility may have been.

"Okay," Scott said at last. "I'll go with you. But we can leave at any time, just say the word. And if he so much as tries to lay a finger on you and it even _could _be in a threatening way, I'm going to fucking hurt him."

Isaac smiled and leant over to kiss him, almost knocking the coffee out of the newly-returned Stiles's hands.

"Twat," Stiles groaned as a scalding droplet of coffee landed on the skin between his index finger and thumb.

Isaac smiled despite the feeling inside him. He was going to spend time with his father. He was terrified.

"Finish these and then we'll go home," Scott said. "We need to finish the provisional guest list for the wedding."

Isaac smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: ****This chapter contains relatively graphic description of child sexual abuse. Please do not read if this could be triggering.**

**Sorry about the wait for this chapter, I've had a hectic month with family and exam results, so I've been stressed and unable to focus. Thanks for bearing with me, I'm going to do my best to get a few chapters ahead of publication so that if something like that happens again, I'll have a few chapters to upload without having to write. **

**I beta'd this chapter myself as my friend and regular beta Jess ( hellokhaleesi) was unavailable so there's more chance of continuity/grammatical errors than usual. If you come across any then please let me know via the private messaging software.**

**Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

"I can't stop you from making your own decisions," said Melissa. "But I don't like this one little bit."

Isaac grimaced. He completely understood Melissa's reluctance to let him and Scott go to dinner at Joseph's house. He could see that she was struggling to understand why he would even want to sit down and eat with a man that abused him for years. If he was being completely honest with himself, Isaac was struggling to understand his own reasoning.

"Mom," Scott interjected before Isaac had the chance to try and explain. "I know you don't get it, but Isaac wants to do this. I'm going to be with him the whole time; I won't leave them alone together."

He broke off, looking to Isaac for permission to tell his mother the main reason for their seemingly insane plan. Isaac nodded and looked down at his half empty plate, his appetite no stronger than it had been for the past two days. Scott turned back to his mother.

"Isaac's dad has a daughter," he said, using his eyes to silently beg his mother to understand the implications without having to ask. Fortunately, Melissa McCall was rather clever.

"Oh, honey," she said as she reached over to grasp Isaac's hand. "I get it, I get it. Okay, I won't try to dissuade you from going but be careful. What's her name?"

"Hope," Isaac said.

"Hope Lahey? Or does she have a different surname?"

"I honestly don't know, Melissa. Her mother's name was Faulkner. If it's not Lahey, it'll be that, or a combination."

"Okay," Melissa said. She stood up from the dining table and walked over to the telephone. "Okay, let's see."

"What are you doing?" Isaac asked.

"I'm going to phone the hospital and see if I can get her records," she said. "Any suspicious injuries she's ever suffered, I'll know about them within the next fifteen minutes."

"Are you allowed to do that? Just demand people's medical records?" Scott asked incredulously.

"No," she said. "But a lot of people owe me a lot of favours. It's just a case of knowing which one to call in."

"Isaac," Melissa shouted up the stairs. "Can you come down here for a minute, honey?"

Isaac exchanged a look with Scott and could tell that they were both thinking the same thing. Melissa must have found something out about Hope. They could tell by the tone of her voice; collected, but noticeably controlled. The two of them stood up from the edge of their bed and made for the door, before Melissa's voice came up the stairs once again.

"Alone."

The two of them exchanged another look, an eyebrow raised each. Scott shrugged and sat back down on the bed as Isaac made for the door.

"What's up?" he asked on entering the kitchen.

Melissa looked worried – like really worried. She gestured for Isaac to sit down and when he did so, she looked at him for a good minute, fidgeting all the while, before she spoke.

"Two suspicious injuries, one possibly suspicious," she said. Isaac noticed that she was chewing the inside of her lip. He'd picked up on that a few times. It was a tick she suffered from when she was anxious about something.

Isaac kept quiet, waiting for her to go on. This is what he had wanted. To know If his suspicions were correct or not, but now that he was just about to find out, he felt faint and nauseated. He willed himself to listen.

"Two years ago, she was brought into hospital after suffering second-degree burns to the index and middle finger of her left hand. She told the doctor that she had burnt it on the 'hot bit of the oven'. After asking her parents, he had a bad feeling about it so he filed a WCW to Jayne in Records who I just got off the phone with. She emailed me the file."

Melissa sat down across from Isaac, where her laptop was positioned. Their dining table seated six and they only ever had Stiles and his father John (who Isaac could not help but notice was a little more fond of Melissa than he first realized) over, so the laptop was a constant feature at the bottom of the table.

"'Welfare Concern Warning regarding Hope Lahey.' Under Doctor's Notes, Dr Wilson wrote this: "Three year old girl complaining of pain to left index and middle fingers. Second degree burns have been observed. I have prescribed child antibiotics and there is an unlikely chance of infection. Mother was absent at the time of injury and father claims the girl placed her hand on the heated plate of the family's electrical oven cooker. However, after checking the child's reflexes and pain response, I have drawn the conclusion that it is very unlikely that the girl would have left her hand on the hot plate long enough to suffer burns as severe as the ones that she has. Possible neglect/abuse noted.' The file was passed onto the police who decided not to investigate."

Isaac felt cold.

"Why didn't they investigate?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Because they investigated with you and couldn't find any evidence. Another unproven allegation could have meant a harassment or misconduct lawsuit against the police department."

Isaac nodded.

"What about the other injuries?"

Melissa looked back to the laptop screen and tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

"This one isn't a WCW, it's just from her medical records," she said. "'Hope Lahey, 4, suffered lesion to the back of her thighs caused by the leather strap of a hammock breaking as she sat on it. As she fell, the rough side of the strap broke the skin on her left leg and marked the skin on her right.' I think that one could be a belt mark. But it could also just be what the report found."

"So that's the possibly suspicious one then?" Isaac asked. "What about the other definitely suspicious one?"

Melissa bit her lip. Isaac could tell that she did not want to tell him and that whatever injury she was about to tell him about was caused by a man that her son and future son-in-law were less than a day away from sitting down to dinner with. He reached over and placed his hand over hers before nodding. She took a deep breath.

"This one is a SCWCW – Severe Child Welfare Concern Warning – but it was never processed. Jayne told me that Dr Patel had written it up. The hospital has a policy that says every Welfare Warning has to be kept by the original doctor for two weeks before it is processed."

"Why?" Isaac couldn't for the life of him work out exactly why a hospital would have a policy that could prevent helping people. Did the Hippocratic Oath mean nothing?

"So that the doctors can check their notes," Melissa said. "The hospital makes the doctors go over their reports several times before they process them. In case the doctor has missed something or noted something down wrong. It's stupid, I know, but it's policy. Dr Patel was in a car accident a week after this report was dated and she died in hospital a few days later. The report hadn't made it to the first stage of processing so not a single other doctor had investigated. Basically, nobody could validate what she was worried about so the hospital dismissed the report. Jayne kept a copy."

She stopped and looked at him. Not the kind of look you give someone when you're giving them your attention, but the kind of look that you have when you're about to give someone you love horrible news. Isaac braced himself.

"Tell me," he whispered.

"'A red mark is visible on the skin between the child's vagina and leg. Her mother is concerned that it is a rash. The mark resembles the shape of a finger. It is possible that the mark has resulted from somebody forcing the girl's legs apart. She was very reluctant to show me this part of her body. In my experience, five year old girls are rarely this body conscious. The father is Joseph Lahey, who was under investigation and had one SCWCW placed against him when his son was examined for bruising of the anus and pelvis. Probable sexual abuse noted, further investigation to follow on follow-up appointment post-processing of this report. Police are also to be notified at this time.' I'm so sorry, Isaac."

He didn't feel the tears on his cheek, but he knew he was crying from the tears that had gathered in his vision. Melissa moved over and hugged him tightly.

"I know this is hard for you but we need to talk about this plan of yours," she said.

"I can't let her go through what I did," Isaac replied, his voice wavering. "I can't let him get away with it."

Melissa nodded and hummed soothingly, cradling his head on her shoulder. He felt childish for being held like this, but he let her hold him.

"Isaac, honey," she said after a while. She lifted his head and he looked at her, his eyes puffy and red but no longer filled with tears. "I understand that you need to make sure that she's alright. But please don't do anything stupid. Help her if you can, but don't put yourself in danger."

Isaac nodded and held her eye until she smiled and dropped her forehead to touch his. She took his hand, and pushed something into it. As Isaac looked down, he saw that it was a small can of pepper spray. He looked back at her questioningly.

"I hate this idea, but I know you're set on it," she said. "In case something goes wrong, keep this on you at all times. And promise me you won't do anything that could get you into trouble."

"I promise," Isaac said.

He felt awful. He knew that he might not be able to keep that promise.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Scott said. His voice was husky and his eyes weren't fully open but Isaac could tell that he wasn't in danger of falling asleep. "I thought you'd get worried."

"If you went on a trip with your ex then I'd be a little worried," Isaac replied. "But you went on a trip with your ex without telling your fiancé, which made me a lot worried."

Scott smiled that adorably dopey slanted smile of his and Isaac squeezed his leg with his feet.

"Don't laugh at me," he said, feigning seriousness. "I know I had no reason to worry but it was a bad idea not telling me."

"I know," Scott replied. "I'm sorry. Kira's my friend and I know she's your friend too. I thought you might think I didn't want to spend time with you, but I didn't even stop to consider that you might think I was cheating with my ex. I should really have seen that coming."

"Yeah, you should." Isaac said, a smile creeping onto his face. "Now, can we not talk about your exes while I'm touching your cock?"

Scott laughed.

Isaac liked this more than anything. They had sex a lot and Isaac enjoyed that aspect of their relationship, but it was the lying together at night in close quarters just playing with each other's bodies that he loved. Anyone could have sex really, there didn't have to be any connection but this was different. This was loving and sensual.

"Are you nervous?" Scott asked, moving his hand up rest between his fiancé's shoulder blades and drawing a figure of eight there with his finger.

Isaac nodded. He'd felt more and more tense as Sunday had drawn nearer. But, he had to admit, this time with Scott was helping him to relieve his tension.

"I don't think I could ever think about my dad without being nervous," Isaac said. "But I don't want to talk about my dad when I'm touching your cock either."

Scott laughed again.

It was nearing midnight and Isaac wanted to sleep for as long as he possibly could before going to his father's house. He wanted to be well rested and alert, in case Joseph tried anything. As if reading his thoughts, Scott turned around and pressed his back into Isaac's chest.

"Let's go to sleep," he said, lightly pressing as much of his body into Isaac's as he could. Isaac took the hint and draped an arm over his fiancé. He pushed a leg between Scott's and pulled one of them back so it was sandwiched between his own.

He heard Scott let out a contented sigh and he leaned in to kiss the dark hair inches from his face.

"'Night, I," Scott said. "I love you."

"Goodnight Scotty," Isaac said. "I love you too."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I am so useless at keeping updated. I know I say this with every chapter but I really will do my best to keep updated from now on! I've set aside time every week to write now so maybe I can finally keep my promise! Thank you so much for reading, favourites/follows/feedback are beautiful and make me feel like stardust.**

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Scott asked.

"No," Isaac admitted. "I don't want to do this at all."

Clearly, Scott could sense the apprehension on him. But they both knew that it had nothing to do with want. Isaac _had_ to do this. He raised his hand to rap the door knocker, but Scott caught him by the arm.

"I want you to remember that I'm going to be right next to you the whole time," he said. "I can't imagine how difficult this is going to be for you because it's not easy for me and I don't have your history. We can leave at any time, I, don't let him get to you."

Isaac almost smiled. He covered Scott's hand with his own for a moment and then he reached up and rapped the knocked.

Six seconds went by before the door opened and they were the six longest seconds that Isaac could remember ever experiencing. He was nervous about this, how could he not be? Reaching out, Isaac grasped Scott's hand just as the door swung open.

"ISAAC!" Hope shrieked delightedly as she ran into him and wrapped her arms around his legs. "Brother Isaac, hiya hiya hiya!"

"'Brother Isaac'," Scott said under his breath while Isaac bent down to greet his half-sister. "She must think you're a frat boy."

Isaac looked up at his fiancé from between his sister's arms. He stood up, holding Hope with an arm underneath her thighs.

"Hope, this is my fiancé, Scott," he said to her. She looked at him and then over to Scott. For a moment, she looked a little wary and then she squirmed to be put on the floor. When Isaac obeyed, she walked forward to Scott and put her hand out like she was waiting for a handshake. Scott smiled and obliged.

"Hello, Hope," he said, crouching down to her height. "It's lovely to meet you. I'm going to be your brother-in-law one day."

"Brother-in-law," Hope repeated. "I don't know what that is but I think I like you. You have funny coloured skin and it's pretty and so are your eyes and smile."

Scott flushed a little and smiled.

"Thank you very much, Hope," he said. "I think your hair is very pretty and you look like a Disney princess."

Hope squinted her eyes like she was trying to tell if he was making fun of her. Then she hugged him.

"I like you even more now."

Scott smirked at Isaac over her shoulder. Isaac returned it.

"Hope, come here please," came the voice of Isaac's father from inside the house. Isaac stiffened visibly and Scott rested a hand on his elbow. "Isaac, Scott, please come in!"

"She's a bit eager," Isaac said in what seemed like an attempt to delay going into the house, even if just for a second. But he sounded thoughtful too. "She's known you two minutes and she's already hugging you."

"Maybe she's just trusting," Scott said.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Isaac replied. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he stepped into the house of the man who'd robbed him of his adolescence.

_Isaac never expected to hit it off with Kira. He had gone to meet Stiles and Malia for a meal and Kira had been out with her mother and met them by chance. Isaac had only just gotten with Scott a few weeks before and he was concerned about how this ex-girlfriend of his current boyfriend was going to react to him. As it turns out, he needn't have worried._

_Kira was engaging, sweet and funny. She spoke of Scott in a way that was both nostalgic and freed. She clearly didn't miss the relationship but neither did she talk of it like it was a mistake. When Isaac got home and told Scott about their meeting, Scott reacted in the same way._

_She was everything that Isaac had expected but without the traits he'd worried about. He knew that sooner or later they would cross paths, but Isaac found he had no reason to be cautious. In fact, they gelled very quickly._

_They had a similar taste in TV shows, they liked the same books, the same movies, the same nearly everything. Isaac could totally see what Scott saw in her, and Kira said the same of him. When it came down to it, this is what made Isaac so paranoid about Kira and Scott when they spent time together; he would totally understand somebody wanting to be with this girl._

_But the thing that Isaac liked the most about Kira was that she was just a friend. She wasn't somebody who knew about his past (although, one drunken night a few years after their first meeting, the truth did come out), she wasn't somebody who based their whole friendship on pity or some self-serving desire to rescue him from his life; she was just a friend. Oddly, Isaac felt that she was the first real friend he'd had in a very long time. _

"Would anybody like gravy?" Joseph asked.

"Me, me, me!" Hope shouted, excited in a way that only a child can be regarding gravy.

Joseph looked at her in an almost cold way that sent familiar shivers racing down Isaac's spine.

"Manners, Hope," he said, glaring at her. "You _know_ you must remember your manners."

Isaac noted that Hope seemed to shrink back in what seemed to be a mixture of shame and guilt. He was alarmed to realize that she also looked scared.

"Will you excuse me for a moment?" he asked, beginning to break into a cold sweat.

His father looked at him and smiled.

"Yes, of course," he said sickly-sweetly. "Though, don't be too long, your food will go cold."

Isaac tugged at Scott's sleeve in a clear signal for him to follow. When the two reached the bathroom at the foot of the stairs, Isaac pulled his fiancé in and bolted the door.

"Scott, she's scared of him," he said. It took a tremendous amount of effort to keep the desperation out of his voice. They were only at the beginning of their second course and already Isaac found himself convinced that Hope needed help. "I think I was right about this."

Scott nodded slowly.

"I know what you mean," he said. "She seems tense whenever she does something wrong. Like, more tense than a kid would normally be anyway."

"Exactly," Isaac said. He didn't know exactly how to articulate his feelings to Scott but he didn't really have to stop and think about Hope's situation; he knew that she was being abused. He recognized the signs, even in someone as young as his half-sister. After all, he'd been a victim of abuse by the same man for several years of his life.

Scott grasped Isaac's hand and squeezed tightly.

"We can get through this," he said. "If we can find any solid proof, we'll report it as soon as we get home."

Isaac nodded. He allowed Scott to move out of the room. Taking a deep breath, he followed.

The mood in the dining room was subdued. The four of them had just finished their desert and Isaac was finding the whole situation too much. Clearly, Scott was too. Even Hope had picked up on the fact that something was amiss. The only person that seemed truly comfortable with the situation was Joseph himself.

"Scott, would you mind helping me with the dishes?" Joseph asked.

A little surprised, Scott nodded and got to his feet. When the two had left the room, Isaac turned to Hope.

"How are you doing, Hope?" he asked. "Are you alright? Everything okay here at home?"

Hope nodded.

"Daddy says I should always say 'yes' when somebody asks if I'm okay," she said matter-of-factly, completely unaware of how much this sentence would affect her brother.

"What do you mean he says that?" he asked. "So you should always say 'yes' when you're asked that, even if it's not true?"

Hope nodded. She reached over and grabbed Isaac's hand. Absent-mindedly, she began to circle his hand with her finger.

"I'm not supposed to tell people if I'm not okay but I'm always okay, Daddy says, so it doesn't matter because that means I'm not telling a lie," she said.

Isaac was incredulous.

"Do you ever not feel okay, even when Daddy says you are?" he asked.

"Yes, sometimes," she said. "Sometimes I'm having a sore day and Daddy says I'm okay but I don't feel like I'm okay but if Daddy says I'm okay then I must be okay because family doesn't lie to family," she said.

Isaac stared at her. 'Sore day?' He was about to press her when she continued.

"Daddy says I'm not allowed to tell anybody about my sore days, but you are my family so I can tell you can't I?"

Isaac nodded.

"What is a sore day, Hope? Does Daddy make you sore sometimes?" he asked.

Hope visibly hesitated and checked over her shoulder, looking for her father. Isaac turned his hand over and held hers in his.

"Remember, family doesn't lie to family," he added, hoping that this would make her comfortable enough to admit the truth quickly. It worked.

"Yes, sometimes," she said. "Sometimes Daddy makes me have a sore day but he says that he loves me and that I have to have sore days because sometimes I'm naughty and sore days are my way of saying sorry to God for being naughty."

Isaac nearly vomited on the spot.

"Okay," he said quietly. "Try to keep Daddy happy, yes? If you do that, you won't have many sore days because you won't be being naughty."

She nodded. Isaac hated himself for lying to her and making her feel like 'sore days' were something that she deserved, but he couldn't think of another way to get her to understand the importance of keeping their father happy.

"Does Daddy ever touch you in places underneath your clothes?" he asked, nausea rippling through his body.

Hope nodded.

"He touches me sometimes where I pee from," she said. "I don't know why he does that but he says that I'm good when I let him do that."

Isaac felt a wave of fury drown out the nausea. But he knew that he couldn't lose his cool now. If he did, he would've been just as in the wrong as if he'd abused Hope himself considering he'd be throwing away the one chance he had to stop this happening. He took a long, deep breath to steady himself.

"Okay," he said. "You can't tell Daddy about any of this because he will think you've been naughty. And you don't need to have a sore day to say sorry to God because I'll say sorry for you. And I know you shouldn't lie, but if he doesn't ask, it's not lying is it?"

Hope looked deep into Isaac's eyes. For a moment, he felt as if she were staring directly into his mind. It was unnerving. After a few seconds, she shook her head.

"No, it's not lying," she said.

As Isaac was about to leave, Hope jumped up and held around his neck. Isaac lifted her up and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm glad you two get on well," Joseph said. "It's nice to see you together. I never thought I'd see it happen."

_And hopefully you never will again,_ Isaac thought, _because you'll be rotting in a fucking prison cell._

It was then that he had perhaps the most genius idea of his life.

"Hey, Hope," he said. "Would you like to come and stay with Scott and me one night - if Daddy's okay with it, of course?"

Joseph's smile momentarily faltered but he collected himself.

"Yes, that would be nice, I imagine," he said. "When did you have in mind?"

Isaac looked at Scott, who mouthed 'Thursday?' back at him.

"How does Thursday sound? She's not back at school yet, is she?" Isaac asked his father.

"No, she doesn't start back for a few weeks," Joseph said. "Do you like the sound of that? Would you like to stay with Isaac on Thursday?"

Hope nodded vigorously.

"Yes please," she shrieked joyously.

"Then it's a date," Isaac said, feeling his self-restraint beginning to really tire him out. "So you'll come and stay with Scott and me, and you can meet our friends in one, two, three, four, five sleeps time, okay?"

Hope smiled and hugged him tighter. She let go and leant over towards Scott who took her out of Isaac's hands and hugged her too.

"Maybe if you're lucky and really good," Scott said. "My mummy will make you some special cookies!"

Hope giggled and kissed him on the cheek.

"See you Thursday!" she said as Scott put her down.

"Love you, brothers!" she added, and disappeared back into the house.

"We'll pick her up around 5?" Isaac said, half-stating, half-asking.

"That sounds alright," Joseph said. "Just don't be late; I'm going on a training course at 6 until 8. That reminds me, I'll have to cancel the babysitter!"

Isaac nodded.

"I'll go and start the car," Scott said.

When he was out of earshot, Joseph spoke again.

"It has been nice to see you, Isaac," he said. "I do miss you sometimes."

He reached forward and stroked Isaac's cheek. Isaac recoiled in disgust.

"I see you don't feel the same," he said. In the space of seconds, his face had changed from something respectable and almost affectionate to something horrible and sinister. A cruel smile played on his lips as he spoke. "That's a shame. I hope your pet enjoys you as much as I did once."

Isaac's anger boiled over but he knew that he couldn't make a scene. Also, he knew that his father was both stronger and quicker than he was. And he could inflict real damage before Scott would even know something was wrong.

"Have fun on Thursday," he smirked. "Perhaps you can compare scars."

The door slammed and Isaac couldn't tell whether he wanted to scream or cry more. He now had total validation of the abuse. He just could not believe how upfront Hope had been. And he was shocked at how freely Joseph had rubbed it in his face. He felt dirty and violated. He hoped that Hope wouldn't suffer too much over the coming days.

As he turned to leave, he caught a glare of light coming from beneath him. Its source was a key to the house, just poking out from underneath the doormat. Isaac quickly looked around to check for any witnesses, quickly bent down and swiped it. He turned away.

_Five sleeps, Hope,_ he thought, _and then I will make sure that you're free of him forever._


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Thank you so much for reading! Massive shoutout to zerogravityganja and The Sangheili Mutant for the reviews! Thanks everybody for the follows and favourites too! I appreciate it enormously! **

**Shoutout also to my beta hellokhaleesi who is back on top form after a brief spell on non internets. **

**My updates will be much more regular now (hopefully weekly and more frequently during college break times) as I've set aside time specifically for writing this fic. **

**Happy reading everybody!**

Wednesday evening felt like the longest few hours of Isaac's life. He worked 9 to 5 every day except for Wednesdays when he started and finished his shift an hour earlier. He beat Scott home by well over an hour and Melissa was working the afternoon shift that day, so he had the house to himself. He decided to spend his free time sitting in the lounge, thinking about how he could rescue Hope.

No matter what plans came into Isaac's head, he discounted them. Could he take her to hospital and come clean about the root of her injuries? No, if he did that, they might not believe him and if they told his father, he'd never have access to his sister again. Could he go to Sheriff Stilinski? No, he knew that the Sheriff had investigated Joseph's abuse before and another failed investigation could lead to a harassment lawsuit. There was only one option that Isaac could actually see working – and it scared him shitless.

Isaac had never been one of those people that follow the law to the letter. He smoked his share of marijuana, drank underage, got into a few fights, and even at one point had sex in a public area in quite clear sight of anybody who looked their way (which Scott, of course, would deny to his deathbed). But this was different. This was a felony.

And yet, Isaac couldn't think of any other way that he could save his sister from her fate. She would live her life the same way Isaac had. The difference being that her abuse started a good ten years earlier than Isaac's had. It made him shudder to think about how much of an effect this sort of trauma could have on a young girl's mind. He knew that abuse victims had one of the highest suicide rates in America; Isaac doubted she'd reach her 16th birthday if it continued.

He couldn't let it happen. Under no circumstances was he going to let Hope suffer any more than she already had. He owed it to her, to himself, and to the memory of his mother and brother to stop it.

_Tomorrow it ends,_ Isaac thought. _Tomorrow, I'm going to kidnap my sister._

Scott knew that there was something really bugging Isaac. He couldn't put his finger exactly on the problem but in the space of roughly two weeks, his boyfriend had discovered that he had a sister, and that she was being abused. It couldn't have been easy for him, Scott surmised.

As he drove through his lifetime home town, he remembered all of the good times that he'd had there.

He drove past the high school that he'd spent a crazy few years at, the car park in which he'd found a stray dog with a broken leg and realized he wanted to be a vet, the abandoned bank that he and Stiles had broken into and gotten drunk for the first time ever, and the dingy club in which he'd first kissed Isaac.

He remembered that there had been many a bad time too; his father leaving, his aunt dying, his mother's financial problems. Now that he thought about it, there were more bad times than he'd ever realized. But still, he loved this town.

And yet, he couldn't help but hope for a future away from Beacon Hills. A future in which he and Isaac would own a big house near the sea in Southern California, maybe Long Beach or Santa Monica; somewhere with a huge city vibe that was still close to the countryside and, more importantly, home.

He imagined a life where he and Isaac could walk their children to the beach on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe the kids could take a friend each. He'd be making enough amount of money from his veterinarian job to cover all the bills so whatever Isaac brought in would be their disposable income. That way they'd not only be able to treat their kids, but it would give Isaac the freedom to finally try to make it as a writer.

Scott was going to save up his salary as a newly qualified vet, and Isaac had the inheritance from his mother. When they moved out, Melissa was going to sell the family home and move in with Sheriff Stilinski – or John, as Scott supposed he should call the man who was a lifelong father figure and probably his future stepdad – and make them a gift of the money she made. The three sources of money combined would mean that Scott and Isaac would be able to buy their new home outright.

Every time that Isaac became detached or depressed, Scott would retreat into this dream. Isolation gave Isaac comfort; Scott drew his from hope.

Thinking about hope made Scott wonder if his newly-found future half-sister-in-law would be interested in helping to raise her nieces and nephews. He hoped that she would. After all, he really was quite fond of her, even after only one meeting, and he saw no other way to rescue her from her father than to get her as far away as possible from him.

**We need to talk ASAP.**

Scott didn't like the sound of that at all. The message had come through to his phone just as he pulled into his driveway. ASAP really was quite soon, and Isaac had a habit of going overboard with kisses at the end of texts so the total absence of them was worrying.

He opened the car door and looked up to the house. It was still daylight but a light was on in the lounge. He checked his phone for the time; 5:40. Isaac would definitely be finished work and Melissa would definitely not be so it didn't take a genius to guess who would be in.

Scott walked up to the house and opened the door. It was unlocked, confirming that it was Isaac in the house – Melissa always locked the door when she was in.

"Isaac?" he called tentatively.

"Lounge," his fiancé called back.

Scott wasn't crazily nervous. Isaac had a habit of being a little over dramatic with everything – a trait that Scott found more endearing than anything else. But he just couldn't deny the feeling of anxiety building inside him.

"What do you need to talk to me about?" He asked upon entering the room.

Isaac looked at him from where he was leaning against the window ledge and nodded at the pair of armchairs in the corner of the room, motioning for Scott to take a seat. Two ready-made cups of coffee were atop the glass table in front of them. Scott sat down and Isaac followed.

"Come on," Scott said. "You're making me really nervous."

"Okay," Isaac said. He sat down on the arm of the chair so that he was facing Scott. It took him a few moments to calm himself down. He was tense and shifty, Scott noted.

"Before I tell you what I'm going to tell you," he began, "I know that you're going to have a problem with it and I can't deal with the judgement."

Scott nodded, hoping that Isaac was going to opt for a quick version of events – the suspense was killing him.

"Tomorrow, when Hope comes to stay, I'm not going to let her go home. I've invited Stiles, Lydia, Malia and Kira over to meet her and when they go I'm going to put her to bed. After your mom's asleep, I'm taking her. I don't know where just yet, but I can't let her go back to my dad. I'm going to stay away with her until I can either find someone responsible in her family that I can take her to, or I'm going to tell the police about everything and make them investigate before I give her back. Hopefully it won't come to the second one because that's a lot more hostage-y.

I was just going to wait until you were asleep and leave you a note but I think you deserve more than that. Before you say anything, there's nothing that you can say to me that's going to change my mind and I really am not in the mood for judgement seeing as this pretty much means putting us on hold for who knows how long and I don't want to do that but I don't see any other way."

Scott felt his mouth open about halfway through Isaac's speech and it didn't close until a good minute after the end. When he regained control over his jaw muscles, he moved to speak but Isaac cut him off.

"I want you to know that I love you so much," he said, his tone begging for understanding. "Nothing I do is going to change that but I need to get Hope away from him. I'll do anything."

"I know," Scott heard himself say. "I understand. But Isaac, think about how this could affect your future."

"Right now," Isaac said. "The only future I care about is hers."

"And what if it doesn't work? What'll happen if you take her and all that happens is that you get arrested and she goes back to live with your dad?"

"Well then, at least I tried."

As much as Scott hated to admit it, he understood why Isaac had come to this conclusion. There really was no other way to go about helping Hope. Going down the legal route wasn't an option, so the illegal route was the only other way. But Scott wasn't going to let Isaac do that alone.

"How are you going to take her?"

"My car," he said.

"Not happening," Scott replied. "That fucking thing's a death trap. We'll take my car."

"We?" Isaac repeated with a dumbstruck look on his face.

"Do you think I'm going to let you do something so monumentally stupid on your own?" Scott asked. "I can put vet training off for a while if I need to. I prepaid for the course so I could just pick up where I've left off next year if I want. I agree with what you want to do even if it's probably totally going to mess up somehow. But I trust you and I'm not letting you do this alone. "

Isaac just stared at him.

"I get that you want to help her, I really do," Scott said. "I can't imagine what she's going through and I know it must be hard for you because you went through the same. You're my family, and she is too now. So yeah, if we have to take a risk to save her, then so be it."

Isaac didn't say anything. To be honest, he didn't really look like he had the capacity to do so. So Scott took the initiative and stood up and wrapped his arms around his fiancé. He kissed Isaac then, feeling a little odd as Isaac was still half sitting making the taller man the shorter in the situation. Scott got a strange feeling from being taller than his future husband.

"Thank you," Isaac said, breaking the kiss.

Scott just smiled and went back to it.

"Oh my… fuck," Isaac almost howled. They knew that they didn't have long until Melissa came home and the day's events had led to a rather unsexy climax. So what had been intended as a 'quickie' had stretched out into a race to ejaculate before Scott's mom caught them on the armchair in the lounge.

This new danger of being walked in on was both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. Admittedly, Scott had no desire to have his mom see him with Isaac's cock halfway down his windpipe but the knowledge that she could walk in at any moment was the most surprisingly arousing feelings he'd ever experienced. Clearly, it wasn't the same for Isaac though.

Scott was trying to rethink his strategy; he wasn't going to stop without making his fiancé come and Isaac just didn't seem to be ready to do so. Quickly lubing up his index and middle finger with saliva, Scott pushed them inside Isaac and upped the intensity of his blow job.

Scott found it funny that he knew the inside of Isaac's ass as well as he knew the back of his own hand. Probably better actually, seeing as knowing exactly where to put his fingers inside Isaac was more important to him than memorizing what his own hand looked like. When he'd stretched Isaac out a little bit, it took him less than a second to find his prostate. And that's when Scott knew he'd hit a winner.

Isaac began writhing and moaning at a much faster tempo. Unconsciously, he began to thrust into Scott's mouth.

After that, it took roughly thirty seconds to bring about the beginnings of the orgasm that Scott had been trying to get for well over half an hour. He had to commend Isaac's longevity – though he would have rather experienced the sudden emergence of stamina when they were both getting serious pleasure from it.

As Isaac's skin began to twitch and contract on Scott's chin, he knew there were only seconds left before ejaculation.

And it was at that moment that Melissa McCall decided to open the front door.

Panicking, Scott pulled off and out just in time for his face to be covered with the first stream of Isaac's come.

"Boys?" Melissa called. Scott stood up quickly and regretted it instantly – his jeans weren't baggy and his cock was rock hard. But he knew he had maybe ten seconds to react before his mom checked the first room that she'd come to after the kitchen.

He saw a blanket on the floor poking out from behind the chair and seized it. He pulled Isaac's jeans up as far as he could with one tug – he got them halfway up his thighs – and covered himself with the blanket as he sat on Isaac's lap. He curled his body around Isaac's, nuzzled his semen-coated face into his fiancé's shoulder and adjusted his body so that his back was to the door.

"What're you-?" Isaac began.

"Mom," Scott whispered, and let his head loll, hoping that his mother would assume he was asleep.

Isaac tried to look over at his legs, but Scott and the blanket blocked his view. He hoped that the blanket was covering his bare thighs and cock, or at least that Scott was.

Melissa entered the room, looking exhausted. Isaac sagged his eyelids a little to try and look like he'd just woken up.

"Hey boys," she said. "Oh. I mean, hey boy. Is he asleep?"

Isaac nodded.

"Did I wake you up?"

Isaac nodded again.

"Have you eaten yet?"

Isaac shook his head.

"I'm ordering pizza. Pepperoni, ham and jalapeño peppers?"

Isaac smiled and nodded once again.

"Are you okay?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said, using all of his willpower to not giggle. "I'm just really tired."

"Okay," she said. "Well, wake him up. You two can clear the kitchen while I go and take a bath. There's cash on the counter so just order the pizza now."

"Okay," Isaac said. "I'll do it in a sec."

She smiled and left the room. He heaved a sigh of relief that Scott echoed, lifting his head from Isaac's shoulder. Isaac laughed.

The come had begun to solidify on Scott's face and it was very noticeable. Like, extremely, light-reflecting sort of noticeable. Isaac had to admit though; he was impressed with Scott's improvisational skills… amongst other things.

"I think she's already upstairs. You can get up now," Isaac said.

"Maybe I like sitting on your cock," Scott smirked.

"More than you like sucking it?" Isaac replied.

Scott shrugged.

"Maybe," he said.

"Well maybe we can find out which one you like more tonight," Isaac said. "But for now, you need to clean yourself up. You look like you fell face first into a bowl of milk."

Scott laughed.


End file.
